New Staff Onboarding

I have been recently learning about staff onboarding from Robert Jackson. He asked me to trial his platform Onboard360, so I could learn from the process. The learning was priceless! Here are some of the main parts. There are three basic parts to the onboarding process:

• Pre-boarding
• Orientation
• Post-boarding
  

Pre-boarding

This takes place prior to the new cohort of teachers arriving at the school. We have our first virtual meeting in March. During this meeting, we get to know one another and start to dig into the school's mission. A padlet is available where staff can ask questions. We then answer the questions in a video and send it the following week. In this video, I incorporated a tour of the school. 

About a month later we schedule a second per-boarding meeting. This keeps the momentum going. In this meeting, we give an opportunity for anybody new to the group to introduce themselves. We also dig a little further into the school philosophy. In this case, we looked at our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes.

During these two to three pre-boarding sessions the school has the opportunity to start to make the new staff feel part of the team and to connect with each other. They are assigned a mentor from the current school staff, somebody they can ask questions. The school can send an important policy every week or two so the new staff member can slowly start to assimilate information that will help them hit the ground running. 

Orientation

In our context orientation takes place over one week prior to school starting. New staff come on Monday and Tuesday, and they are joined by returning staff members from Wednesday to Friday. It is important to get a balance here between communicating school philosophy, getting to know one another time, curriculum planning and time to set up learning spaces. I generally try to give teachers afternoons free to plan and set up the class.

The advantage to a strong pre-boarding program is that you do not need to cram so much into the orientation week. You can send new staff items to read in advance. I have learned that a good leader keeps the mission at the forefront of all you do. It is a good idea to develop your ice-breaker around the mission and have staff moving, interacting with one another, and making new connections around the school mission. Everything to do with housing, visa, food, internet and furniture should all have been taken care of before the orientation so that the staff members' primary needs are sorted and out of their minds before orientation starts. 

Post-boarding

Just like the pre-boarding meetings it is a good idea to have some post-boarding meetings after new staff have been on the ground. About two meetings where you buy some treats and get some coffee, and just check in to see how new staff are doing. During this time you can find how things are going and ask if there are any personal or professional needs the staff members have. It is a good opportunity to receive feedback on the onboarding process and improve it in the future. 

Your staff are your greatest asset. Having a solid plan in place to welcome them, provide for their needs and help them hit the ground running will be an immense benefit to your entire community and help the school further its mission.